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Announcing Ohio Community of Women in Computing!

Posted on:1 March 2017

By:bbair

Maybe you've heard someone tell you our origin story...? About how this "Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing" started back in 2004? There were just a few of us talking about how we could get all of you together to share your experiences, so that you could see each other, find friends and mentors, to have the feeling of belonging to a community. That first discussion was just Bettina Bair, Ellen Walker, Bob Walker, Valerie Cross, and Tim Long eating burritos in my living room... but look how we've grown! That's how it goes with seeds. You plant them, care for them and they grow.

Well, now there are a few more of us. Actually a lot more of us! And we've been talking about building a new thing, and we want you to be a part of it. We love OCWiC, this celebration, it's amazing. But every two years is not enough.

We know that a lot of you have clubs, like student chapters of ACMW, and groups like that. And we want to connect your clubs to each other, and people with your clubs.

We know that a lot of you have businesses that want more diversity in IT, and we want to connect you to broader candidate pool.

We know that some of you have amazing programs for providing training and support to under-represented groups, and we want to connect you with volunteers, teachers and mentors.

We know that some of you need speakers for local events, and we want to connect you with expert technical women.

We want to connect all of you Ohio Women in Computing. Not just today, but every day. Until the next OCWiC, and the next one, and the next one.

So today we are announcing a new program, in Ohio, and in partnership with ACMW, to form an Ohio COMMUNITY of Women in Computing to serve as a resource and clearing house for companies, schools and clubs that want to broaden participation in computing. We want to support your discussions, your job searches, your candidate searches, and your events.

And because Ohio is a place where we can make change. Ohio will be the first COMMUNITY for ACMW. What we do here will become a model that can be replicated where other regional Celebrations are already established.